There Is Genius in Catholicism

Beautiful Mercy Reflections

Why are we doing this anyway? Well, this time of the year is a time of preparation. We bake cookies, decorate the house, put up the tree and the lights, buy and wrap presents, send Christmas cards, and do countless other preparations. But do we prepare our hearts? . . .

Who sits on the throne of your heart? Just before she died, Saint Joan of Arc wrote: “I know this now. Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people . . .

We will all be called upon at one time or another to impart “facts” and knowledge about the truths of our faith. But as the saying goes, “More is caught than taught.” Communicating this spiritual . . .

Willingly is not the same thing as easily. First, it means that a person is not forced into choosing forgiveness because of a lack of options. We can probably all think of situations in which we were forced to . . .

Several years ago, as I stood in line for the sacrament of confession about to confess for the umpteenth time a sin I couldn’t seem to quit, I began to fear that God’s mercy was running out. I didn’t doubt that God would pardon a person who turned to him . . .

When I ponder Christ’s preaching on the works of mercy in Matthew 25, my mind goes immediately to water, to access, and to sanitation. I know from my work with relief agencies that every dollar we spend on this problem yields . . .

I love hearing stories from people who have been in the presence of great saints, like Mother Teresa or John Paul II. People say things like, “When we talked, nothing else seemed to matter to him,” or . . .

When you look at people who are successful at anything, they have great habits. You know, you often hear people say, “Well the secret to my success was this,” or, “The secret to my success was that.” But the reality . . .